1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an exercise machine with a self-aligning pivoting user support, and is particularly concerned with an exercise machine for exercising the lat or latissimus dorsi muscles of the back
2. Related Art
The latissimus dorsi or lat muscle is the wing-like muscle of the upper back under each arm. Lat exercise machines are designed to allow a user to perform pulldown or rowing exercises which exercise the lat muscles. In order to perform a lat pulldown exercise, a user grabs an overhead arm and pulls it down against an exercise resistance, in a motion similar to that of a free bar chin up exercise. There are many types of rowing exercise machines. Low row, mid row, leverage row, and T-bar row are the most common strength training versions, and are intended to mimic the upper torso motion of rowing a boat. Both lat pulldown and lat row exercises are compound movement exercises involving more than one muscle group.
Existing pivoting arm pulldown and lat row machines often produce an exaggerated and unnatural arcing movement of the body, which can be uncomfortable for the exerciser.